Skip to main content
By default the server scales to zero when it is idle. The next request after a quiet period has to start the container and validate the license before it can be served, which takes noticeably longer than a normal request — and can be slow enough that the caller gives up first.

​
When you need this

Symptom: the server works fine most of the time, but occasionally a scenario is very slow or fails with a connection error — and running it again straight away succeeds. Failures cluster after periods of no activity.
This pattern is a cold start, not a broken deployment. If the server fails consistently rather than intermittently, this page is not the fix — see Troubleshooting.

​
Turn on Always Ready Mode

You do this yourself on the App Status page — make.magicmealkits.com/app-status.
1

Open App Status

Go to make.magicmealkits.com/app-status and sign in with the account you use for your deployment.
2

Find Scaling Settings

Scroll to the Scaling Settings card at the bottom right of the page. Always Ready Mode shows as DISABLED by default.
3

Enable it

Click the toggle. It keeps one instance warm (minimum instances = 1) so requests are served immediately instead of waiting for a container to start.The change applies to the running service — no redeploy needed.
4

Confirm

Re-run the scenario that was failing. Response times should be consistent from the first request, with no slow outlier after an idle period.

​
Cost

Always Ready Mode keeps an instance running around the clock, so the service no longer scales to zero and usage continues while idle. This is billed by Google Cloud and will take you past the always-free tier. The App Status page labels the enabled state Premium Cost for this reason.
Leave it off if occasional slow first requests are acceptable — scheduled scenarios that run every few minutes usually keep the instance warm on their own, and cold starts only show up after genuinely quiet periods. Turn it on when requests must respond predictably, such as webhooks or user-facing automations. See Google Cloud billing for how billing is set up on your project.
  • Slow under load rather than after idling? That is a memory problem, not a cold start — see Performance & memory.